More retail jobs across the county are at risk after Adams, the children’s clothing chain, became the latest high street victim of the economic slowdown.

Adams, which has clothed generations of boys and girls for 75 years, is expected to call in administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers today.

Eight of the company’s 260 stores are in Kent and Medway - Ashford, Chatham, Dartford, Hempstead Valley (Gillingham), Maidstone, Sevenoaks, Sittingbourne and Tonbridge.

Dozens of jobs out of 3,000 nationwide are at risk if the administrators fail to find a buyer for the Nuneaton-based chain.

Adams also supplies clothes to Boots under the Mini Mode brand.

It joins a roll call of once illustrious high street names that have plunged into administration in the past few weeks, including Woolworths, Zavvi, Whittard of Chelsea and The Officers Club.

It is the second time that Adams has gone into administration. Owner John Shannon bought it out of administration for £15m in February 2007. But it owes substantial sums to Burdale, an Irish lender that also financed Woolworths.

The latest collapse comes amid claims that Bluewater had one of its busiest Christmas periods, with 270,000 people visiting the centre on the weekend before Christmas.

But while retail manager James Waugh was confident Bluewater would continue to be successful, he admitted that the coming year would be tougher than 2008, with more retail casualties likely.

"It is going to be a challenging year ahead, no question, but I don’t think it’s going to be the black picture that’s been painted everywhere," he said.

Meanwhile, insolvency experts at Begbies Traynor have predicted that up to 15 retail chains would face financial collapse by the middle of January, threatening thousands of jobs.

PwC has already calculated that 4,000 empty shops will appear on Britain’s high streets if only 10 per cent of the nation’s retailers hit financial problems over the next 12 months.

Adams was founded in 1933 by Amy Adams at her terraced home in Birmingham.

After 40 years as an independent retailer, it was bought by Foster Brothers in 1973, which 10 years later was acquired by the Sears Group. It now operates a number of stores overseas, including Cyprus, Greece, Eire, Finland and Slovakia.The company reported that in Spring 2008, like-for-like sales went up by 25 per cent.